Magnetic hard disk drives store user data onto one or more rotating disks. The data is recorded and retrieved by magnetic head elements. Each magnetic head element is embedded onto a small slider (typically 1.25 mm by 1 mm by 0.3 mm) which is “flown” on top of the disks with spacing less than 10 nm. This spacing, or “flying height”, is critical to recording density because in the current design the flying height of the magnetic head is inversely proportional to the recording density. The flying height is maintained by a self-acting air-bearing which is formed between the rotating disk and the air-bearing surface (ABS) etched onto the adjacent slider surface. The performance and reliability of the hard disk drives critically depends on maintaining the stability of the flying height. Small-sized debris and other contaminants (in the tenth of a micron range) in the disk drive can pass under the ABS altering the flying height and causing bit-error rates. Debris may appear from external sources or can be generated due to the movement of the disk-drive parts. It may cause the slider to crash into the disk thereby causing data loss. Moreover, if such debris is metallic it may cause shorts in the electrical operation of the disk drive. Therefore, the disk drive industry is in need of an air bearing surface design that includes particle deflection features that can aid in deflecting particles from the critical magnetic head elements.